Conventional die trays for handling semiconductor materials for chip assemblies can introduce significant drawbacks into processing steps. As shown in FIG. 1, dies 102 are conventionally flipped from one die tray 100 to another die tray 110 after processing a top side 106 of each die 102, in order to expose the bottom sides of the dies 102 for bottom side processing. In a conventional process, individual dies 102 are placed into cavities of a conventional die tray 100. Selective removal of a protective layer 104 is followed by a cleaning process. The dies 102 may then undergo a surface activation and termination steps 108. The dies 102 are transferred from the first die tray 100 to a second die tray 110 by flipping the dies 102. The transferred dies 102 are thus face down (exposed top side 106 down) on the second die tray 110. The dies 102 may then be picked up from the second die tray 110 by surfaces of each die 102 protected by a resist layer 112, and attached to a surface of a wafer or substrate 114 for low temperature bonding operations, for example. The protective resist layer 112 may then be removed. But the singulated dies 102 being processed have coarse surfaces on the lateral sides where dicing has taken place to singulate the dies. The coarse surfaces of the dies 102 easily produce particulate debris during the flip from tray 100 to tray 110. The dies 102 may also nick, crack, and chip because of the flipping operation, further producing crumbs and particles of the semiconductor material during the flipping operation. The loose particles prevent intimate mating between the dies 102 and the mating and bonding surfaces beneath.